This invention relates to a flexible heating and cooling device which takes the shape of the object on which it is positioned, and more particularly to a reusable, rechargeable temperature regulating jacket containing a temperature conditioning liquid for controlling the temperature of a beverage container or other object on which the jacket is positioned.
A variety of products are currently available which may be utilized as portable heating and cooling devices, for example water bottles which may be filled with ice or hot water dependent on the function which is to be performed. Other types of temperature controlled media which had been used are essentially water or water/alcohol mixtures which are packaged in rigid or plastic containers. Some are actually in the form of beverage container holders which are used for chilling and insulating canned or bottled beverages, for example, as shown in U.S. Pat. Nos. 4,768,354; 4,163,374; 4,163,226; 3,302,427; and 4,299,100 and many others which contain cooling fluids. Such containers are usually rigid or semi-rigid and accommodate the housing of a particular size bottle or can. If different sized bottles or cans are used, such containers do not fit and good thermal contact is not established between the housed beverage can or bottle and the container which is used to chill it. Without such intimate contact good thermal temperature transfer is not made.
Another form of heating and cooling device employs a flexible plastic bag containing a liquid or gel which maintains a gel-like consistency over a wide temperature range in which gel is non-toxic and non-irritating. U.S. Pat. Nos. 3,545,230 and 3,885,403 are examples of this type of package. Another type of hot and cold pack is provided with materials being normally separated from each other in separate compartments in which the materials are mixed to produce a chemical reaction between the materials when one of the compartments is ruptured. Examples of this type of hot or cold compress are U.S. Pat. Nos. 3,804,077 and European Patent Application No. 89304933.8. Such packages generally come in a flat layer which must be configured or wrapped around the bottle, can or object which is desired to be heated or cooled. All such packages are adapted to be housed in a freezer of a refrigerator to be charged or readied for cooling purposes. Likewise, the device must be heated in some way when being used as a hot compress. When the packs are designed to be frozen in a refrigerator such devices are only suitable for things like portable coolers, insulated containers, etc. because the product is rigid and does not conform to the geometric configuration of the objects which are being cooled or heated thereby. Accordingly, uneven cooling is provided. One advantage of the gel packs resides in their flexibility and moldability when frozen. Thus, even moldable packs when frozen can be made to conform to various geometric shapes but retaining those shapes and keeping those shapes in intimate contact with the object being heated or cooled is simply not obtained. Direct intimate contact produces the best temperature exchange and any deviation in such contact produces poorer results in terms of heat or temperature exchange. At the same time, such packs are not insulated from the environment, and accordingly transfer as much or more temperature to the environment than to the object to which they are affixed. This is partly due to the fact that larger surface areas communicate with the environment rather than with the object being cooled, particularly when the cooling or heating appliance loses direct intimate contact with that object.